El poder de sí

Yesterday was, simply put, spectacular.  Our schedule for the day said that we would be exploring los tejados de la catedral, but I had no idea that this meant we'd be climbing around on the ROOF of the Cathedral!  The views were breathtaking, as I'm sure you can guess, however it was the sensation of being above the city, above this holy site, that moved me.  My own religious/spiritual beliefs aside, it seemed to me that all of my petty concerns and interests must look pretty insignificant to whoever/whatever sees me from up there.

 Yet again, I will have to leave it up to my pictures to show you what it was like up above the city.

After the Cathedral, Domingo, our history professor, said that he was sure we were tired, but that he was heading to a museum on Galician history, and that he would not turn around until he got there.  If there were people with him, great, and if not, he'd just visit on his own.  At this point my head went something like this: "homeworkblogskypefamilysleepfeethurtbackhurtshungryhomeworkblogfeetbackhomework" until my friend bumped me with her shoulder and asked, "Wanna go?" to which I responded, "...Yes!"

Skipping ahead a little, I will return to the museum in a moment, later said friend and I had a conversation about our priorities here in Spain.  For me, I am quite accustomed to saying "No" back at school.  "No, I can't hang out, I have work," "No, I can't go to that show, I need to study," "No, I can't stay up tonight to watch the stars, I need to sleep for tomorrow."  Now that we're here, however, I have begun to learn to say "Yes."  "Yes, I do want to go to that museum," "Yes, I will go out to dinner with you," "Yes, I would like to hang out while we pretend to do our homework."  I do need to do my homework, and I do need to sleep and eat, and I do need to try to keep in touch with people back home, but those all activities I can do anywhere.  Only here and now can I experience Spain.  It is hard for me to learn to say "yes," yet it may be the most important lesson I learn here all year.

Meanwhile, back at the museum...It was pretty interesting with the usual assortment of ancient buried people, tremendous arches, and decorations from cathedrals of old.  That is, it WAS pretty interesting, until Domingo showed us The Staircase.  I do not know it's official name, or very much about it at all, except that it is old (yeah, sorry for my lack of information!), and that it was designed to allow access to many different levels without taking up much room.  Perhaps I should be saying "they" instead of "it" as The Staircase is made up of three entirely independed staircases that wind up the inside of their tower.  In order to access staircase A from staircase B, it is necessary to run all the way back downstairs because they at no point intersect.

Domingo warned that we no venture upstairs if we suffer from vertigo (fear of heights), but, for my readers, I inched my way up so that I could send back home the perfect picture of the stairs from above.  As it turned out, all I really got out of my trek up was a chance to face my fear because, as you will see, the pictures from below are actually much better.

Soon after this I headed home with my friend from before, and then went back out to eat a few slices of pizza and have a glass of wine in a plaza next to the Cathedral where Flamenco singers, dancers, and musicians were performing.  From here I followed some new Spanish friends to a nearby bar, where I had a cerveza, before heading home around 1:00.

My dedication to "yes" yesterday made it a little difficult to get up and make it through classes this morning, but, cheeseball statement of the day, I would rather be tired here than well rested anywhere else.

Un beso

Fotos

Here you can find more of my pictures from yesterday.  Enjoy!

Un beso

Sístole y diástole

I’m sorry I’ve been absent the last few days! Classes began on Monday, and they leave little time to do much else. Fortunately, however, we have been on our own for dinner, and it has been very gratifying to figure out how to feed ourselves. Gracias a Lonely Planet, we ate at Restaurante Ó 42 on Rúa do Franco Sunday night, and it was a feast! Everyone ordered their own ración and we all shared in the delicious pulpo, pimientos, tortillas y más. Unfortunately, the next day I got sick at dinner (we ended up choosing the restaurant where we ate because I had to run in without warning in order to not get sick on the street), so my classmates haven’t been allowing me to eat any meat since. (Perhaps tonight will be different!)

I am very glad that I decided to stay at that second dinner after getting sick, however, because it was the most fun I’ve had since we arrived. The company was wonderful (two Wesleyan students, two Vassar students, and one Columbia student), the food was delicious (if TINY), and the service was especially friendly (a treat in Spain, where servers are not working for tips). We played a rousing game of “never-have-I-ever”, taking sips of our wine for everything we had done that someone said they never had. Needless to say, by the end of dinner we were very giggly, and much closer than we had been before.

After dinner we strolled (a bit haphazardly, but laughing all the way) to the plaza in front of the Cathedral, and sang along with a group of costumed men who had gathered a crowd across from the monumental building. It wasn’t long, however, before we were called back by the city’s jewel to lie down in the middle of the plaza and gaze up at it, illuminated against the black sky.

Today we had the privilege of touring Santiago de Compostela with an art history professor. He had a LOT to say about the architectural set-up of the city, and I have to admit, I was too distracted by all that at which he was pointing to listen to all that he was saying. I did, however, take in the significance of the layout of the streets, which are constantly truncated by each other. It is impossible to see down a street more than 500 yards in either direction because they either curve, or buildings spring up and the road comes to a T.

The theme of blocked views is echoed by the city’s plazas, in which there exist no views between the buildings out of the plaza, rather the buildings overlap each other to create a sense of full enclosure. In said plazas, our professor also pointed out the way in which baroque architecture is always pointing upwards, drawing one’s eyes to the sky. Finally, our he emphasized the importance of the flattened corners on the buildings (rather than coming to a point, many walls look like the corner has been shaved off), however I never ended up hearing why this was the case.

I took a number of pictures, a couple of which you can see on this page, and soon I will post a link to an album with the rest of my photos. I hope you haven’t found this post too dry! The fact is that we don’t have time to have much fun right now, but I assure you that, before long, you will be hearing about all the fun, exciting things there are to do in Spain.

Un beso

¡Solo momentos más!

Post to come this evening!  As long as the rain holds off, we should be exploring Santiago de Compostela this afternoon as a "ciudad barroca."  Looks interesting!

Un beso

¡Hola!

Hello friends and family!  To begin, I have decided to start this blog for two reasons: 1) so that those of you interested in all that I am doing in Spain may read about it here, and 2) so that I have something to help me remember all I have done and seen, and have yet to do and see, in Spain.  With this in mind, please forgive me if not all I post is of interest to you, however I will try my hardest to write with my readers in mind.

Today is officially my fourth day in Spain.  We arrived in Santiago de Compostela on Thursday, and since then we have been doing our best to get to know this amazing city.  Yesterday was perhaps our most interesting day so far, with points of interest including the Catedral de Santiago de Compostela, the Hostal dos Reis Católicos, an exhibit on Charlie Chaplin, a street performer who had gathered an audience of over one hundred, and another delicious dinner of tapas.

I will try to keep my own personal complaints to a minimum, but yesterday requires an explanation before I begin gushing about all I did and saw.  When I developed a crippling stomach ache late in the afternoon, I had a number of theories as to why I felt so bad.  The night before I had been eagerly following our monitores (recent university grads whose job it is to show us the city) from concert to bar to discoteca, etc. until 6am, and though I was able to monitor how much alcohol I drank, I certainly was not keeping an eye on how much water I was drinking, so Theory 1: hangover.  Also, due to my returning home so late, I slept through breakfast and lunch, so Theory 2: starvation.  Finally, I had not eaten any animal since I was last in Spain four years ago, but the night before at dinner, I happily, Pac-man style, chomped my way through pulpo (octopus), pescado (fish), and jamon (ham), so Theory 3: inability to digest this new food.

As all of my Theories had one aspect in common, my own fault, I refused to miss our afternoon excursion through the city, and a Dios gracias that I didn't because otherwise I would have missed all that I named above.  My determination to go on, however, did not make me feel any better physically, and as I was trudging behind the group up what otherwise would have been wonderful cobblestone streets, I was cursing myself in my head, and praying that I would not leave my own mark on these aged stones by getting sick on them.  Then, just like things like this always happen, when I finally could not take anymore, and I had just begun figuring out how to tell my monitor in Castillian that I was sick and I needed to go back, we turned a corner and I was in front of the most breathtaking church I had ever seen.  (Should we start a count as to on how many churches I bestow this title while I am in Europe this year?)

The Cathedral is truly a wonder.  I do not know how to begin to explain it, so I will leave that up to my pictures, but I will share that I was brought to tears to see it (okay, so I had been crying earlier because of my pain, but I am pretty sure that the Cathedral still would have had the same effect).  Later this week we are going to explore the inside of the church, but yesterday we were content to gaze in awe at the western facade, and the surrounding buildings.

I was also particularly moved by the building to the Cathedral's right, the Hostal dos Reis Católicos, which Isabel and Ferdinand built in 1499 as a hospital (Lonely Planet guide to Spain).  Today it still stands as a luxury hotel, and as a remembrance to the power of Los Reyes Católicos.

After losing and finding the group a number of times, we all made it to a smaller church not too far from the Cathedral in which there was an interesting exhibit on Charlie Chaplin, then we gathered outside para tomar algo (drink something) at a nearby cafe.  At this point Santiago de Compostela made it clear to us that it was no Madrid, and that my measly tee-shirt and shorts were not adequate for the city's weather.  We began to huddle together for warmth as the monitores reminded us that, although it was 9:00pm, we were not to eat yet, and that we were not wearing jackets.  (...thanks?  We were quite aware of the second fact)  At this point my stomach ache was back in full force and it was all I could do to not fall at my monitor's feet crying for mercy.

Eventually we began walking again, and I bought a scarf from a street vendor that, when wrapped around my insufficient clothing, made me look like a flasher.  Obviously I did not care.  We paused at a street performer who was entertaining what I would guess to be hundreds of people with jokes, juggling, and dancing, then, just when we thought we could take no more (I told you that's the way it always happens), we arrived at our restaurant for an early dinner.  (It was 10:00pm, and regardless of our knowledge of Spanish customs, we were starving.  Recall that I had slept through breakfast and lunch?)

I am sure dinner would have been delicious, but I had finally realized that I was truly sick (none of my Theories could explain a piercingly sore throat, and an annoying cough), so I got down as many tapas as I could, and shook my head at refill after refill of wine (one glass was MORE than enough with the lack of food in my stomach), and listened quietly to my peers as they regained their energy, and took advantage of the wine to start the night's buzz.

After dinner I explained to the monitores that I was sick and needed to go home (at first I think they thought I was somewhat of a wet blanket, until I reminded them that I had not eaten meat in years, at which point they became very sympathetic and helpful) and I made my way back to the university.  Due to my jet lag and illness, I heard my peers come in at around 4am, then leave again at 10am for the beach, but I have only ventured from my bed long enough to force down lunch.  Throughout all of this, however, I have continued to remind myself that, whatever the reason I am sick, it is good I am getting it out of the way now, and I truly believe this.

Hopefully my next post will have fewer complaints and more experiences about which to share!

Un beso